436 Ray, Fortnight on the Farallones. \^0^. 



doing it, especially when the egg had been knocked out of the 

 nest. 



Only three or four gulls in immature mottled dress were seen, 

 and when the great flocks on West End would rise and hover 

 above us in their uniform snowy plumage, in the bright sunlight, 

 it was an inspiring sight. 



6. Oceanodroma leucorhoa. Leach's Petrel. 



Although found some years ago on the island by Mr. Leverett 

 M. Loomis, and doubtless breeding there in limited numbers, we 

 failed to find them, although we might have, perhaps, had we 

 come a month later. 



7. Oceanodroma homochroa. Ashy Petrel. 



We saw little of the petrels except at night, when they fluttered 

 about, or on our daily rambles when we spied their dark form in 

 some narrow crevice in the ledges or rock fences. On being 

 lifted in the hand a dark oily fluid would drip from their beaks, 

 and when released these birds, with the form and wavy flight of a 

 swallow, would make for the open sea. We noticed a number of 

 these dainty little birds wliich had been killed by striking the tele- 

 phone and telegraph wires on the island. 



The petrels were evidently late in breeding this year, for 

 although we made a thorough search and found many roosting 

 birds, we secured no eggs except those of last year, in which the 

 contents had dried. 



8. Phalacrocorax dilophus albociliatus. Faralion 

 Cormorant. 



We first visited the Main Top Rookery, the only one of this 

 species on the Farallones, on the morning of May 29. After a 

 hard climb, about the hardest on the islands, with all our photo- 

 graphic apparatus, we saw the rookery just above us, below the 

 peak. As we came up a strange and never-to-be-forgotten sight 

 greeted our eyes. All about on the weed nests on the jutting rocks 



